The Quirky Side of East

Film Club

“Catch Me If You Can” plays at Film Club on the projector in Nathan Southwicks science classroom. Film Club President, Junior Lizzy Hall and Vice President, junior Janet Fields stand in front of the screen, sarcastically talking to each other about how there is a great turn out when clearly they are the only two who showed up today.

“Its really just Janet and I now and we’re competing with other clubs that meet on Fridays now,” Hall said. “We are thinking about having less meetings”

The club was started two years ago and was primarily run by upperclassmen, Hall was the only underclassmen member so when the seniors graduated she “inherited” the club and Janet became her VP. They share the responsibility of making posters and getting the word out that they meet every Friday.

The meetings are spent watching popular movies and discussing the cultural significance. For instance, when watching “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” the club discussed how it has stayed popular even after so many years of its release date. When the club watched “The Help,” they talked about things happening during the time period of the movie that related to what they were studying in U.S. History class.

Last year, Film Club had more avid members that would go to the meetings every week. Since a lot of the main participants graduated, attendance has been hurting.

“We’re really trying to encourage our friends to come,” Hall said. “I mean everyone is welcome and we have really good popcorn”

Film Club has decided not to have any more meetings until fourth quarter in the hopes that they will be able to publicize and advertise it more, since they have dwindled down to about one or two people showing up to meetings when they used to have over twice that. The club is hoping that by waiting until fourth quarter to meet again, attendance will increase.

Fashion Club

Senior Gaby Azorsky loves fashion. Unfortunately, when she was a freshman she felt like something was missing from the Clubs list at East. Something that she enjoyed, fashion. So this year, she decided to start East’s very own Fashion Club.

“The whole point is to learn about fashion,” Azorsky said.  “There was no place like that for me and I like that I’ve made a place like that for people.”

Fashion Club has had five meetings so far this year. Azorsky plans out a different activity for each of the meetings. In November, they talked about winter trends, and at the next meeting they will be talking about spring trends. The past two meetings have been spent discussing red carpet styles from the Grammy’s and the Golden Globes.

Azorsky wants to make it known that ‘for those of you who love fashion but aren’t artistically gifted — NO FEAR — you do not have to make anything in this club.’

“We do a lot of stuff on Pinterest and Tumblr,” Azorsky said. “I think social media has a really big part in the fashion industry, so incorporating all of that is definitely important.”

There are usually ten to twelve people who show up to meetings which Azorsky thinks is great but she would love to have more. Fashion Club meets in room 517 every other Wednesday, and snacks are provided.

As for next year when Azorsky has graduated, she hopes the club will continue.

“It doesn’t have to be an upperclassmen [who takes over the club] it could be a sophomore,” Azorsky said. “It doesn’t take a lot of effort but you have to want to put in the effort.”

Photo Club

Juniors Chloie Costello and Kendall Dunn started the district’s first-ever photo club this year. The two are both passionate about photography, so at the end of the summer they decided they wanted to start a club for students who share their passion.

At meetings, which are every other Monday in room 204, members first discuss the photos they submitted for that week’s theme contest. Then, they participate in photo-related activities that differ each meeting.

“Every two weeks we have a different theme,” Costello said. “We have those two weeks to take pictures, then everyone submits their photos for the theme and we vote [at the meeting]. We discuss the pictures, too.”

Costello said themes have ranged from fall, to morality, to anything beginning with the prefix “re-”. After the contest, the club will do activities such as working with Photoshop or developing film.

“One week, we worked with sienna types,” Costello said. “Which is this paper you put a special chemical on and it reacts with sunlight.”

According to Costello, there is a consistent group of about 15 students who attend photo club.

“Sometimes, our friends will come randomly,” Costello said. “That’s always fun.”

Club Hammock

Club Hammock was formed during a casual conversation over lunch during yearbook club pictures day. Junior Maria Dunn and her friends were talking about all of the different clubs at East and how ridiculous some of them are. During this conversation, Senior Hayden Wylie piped up and suggested they start a club for people who love to hammock.

Dunn loved this idea, and decided they would call it “Club Hammock”. She immediately jumped into planning. In her 4th hour gym class, she recruited sophomore Kathryn Jones and senior Utsa Ramaswami to be the club’s executives with her.

“They love hammocking too,” Dunn said. “So they were, of course, like ‘let’s do it’. We started advertising it through Instagram and Twitter.”

The three girls got a club form from the office, and then asked Susan Hallstrom, Jones’ chemistry teacher, to be their sponsor.

The first club meeting was held after school on Feb. 21. Twenty students that showed up packed up their hammocks, and walked to Harmon Park. There they found a cluster of trees where students could hang their hammocks.

“[At Club Hammock], we had Kool-Aid Jammers and pretzels and just chilled out,” Dunn said. “It was super relaxing. It was a pretty incredible environment because since anyone and everyone is welcomed, lots of different people showed up and everybody got the chance to make new friends in a non-stressful, friendly place. I want it to be a place where anyone can come to without judgement and just have a really good time, and it seems like that’s what it is becoming!”

The club meets after school every Friday, and remember — it’s B.Y.O.H.